Heterogeneously Reconfigurable Energy Harvester: An Algorithm for Optimal Reconfiguration

We propose a heterogeneously reconfigurable energy harvester which contains multiple energy harvesting (EH) blocks, each comprised of multiple EH circuits in parallel to be optimized for different input power ranges. Practical EH circuits have their own favorable input power range due to turn-on sensitivity and saturation effects. To account for this, we present the necessary conditions for efficient configuration of an energy harvester, and then propose an algorithm for optimal reconfiguration of the energy harvester. Furthermore, adaptive time switching and mode switching problems are formulated in order to maximize the average achievable rate under the self-powering condition. Our proposed energy harvester and algorithm can be applied to low-power Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices with wireless EH capability for self-sustainability, which will be a key enabler for realizing a battery-free IoT network.